Joseph Rokaz Knitwear

December 15, 1985|by POLLY RAYNER, The Morning Call

From law school to sweater designing is quite a career switch. But the career of sweater designing is a natural fit for designer Joseph Rokaz.

Raised in a world of fashion and fabric, Joseph's father is founder of a successful knitting mill in Philadelphia. Though fashion was in Joseph's blood, it was not yet on his mind. His fascination for the law inspired him to study pre-law at Temple University and eventually graduate from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

Admittedly, law was too staid for his creativity and Rokaz decided to stretch his imagination to manufacturing an innovative sweater line.

At the recent Menswear Fashion Association of America fall-winter press week, where this interview took place, Rokaz said "You can do things now in knitwear that you never could do before . . . my 'suspender' sweater is a good example of what you couldn't do five years ago, unless you worked it on a hand machine. Last fall I was wearing suspenders over my sweaters, and one day I thought . . . what a great design this would be . . . and it certainly caught on.

"There are so many possibilities in knitwear if you have an open mind to creativity. There's so much room to grow, especially in menswear, because up until a few years ago when designer Ron Chereskin came out with his novelty sweaters, everything was so traditional."

Eager to learn everything he could about knitting, Rokaz enrolled in the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. There, he learned the latest methods of manufacturing and design as well as experimenting with yarns, colors, patterns and textures.

In 1981 he was ready to introduce his own men's sweater collection - The Joseph Rokaz Knitwear. Since then, Joseph Rokaz Knitwear has been catching the public's eye throughout the country, the designer said. His classic shawl collar cardigan is currently starring in the Broadway hit "La Cage aux Folles."

His love of experimenting continues and with the success of his spring line, he has gained enough confidence to drop the C in his name and now anxiously looks forward to having it pronounced correctly. He explains "my last name was spelled Rokacz, but I dropped the C because it is easier to pronounce."

The spring line we saw on the runway was whimsical and captivating. Divided into three segmemnts - country casual, city sophisticate and urbane elegance - Rokaz's intricate textures, colors and patterns create both mood and a sense of place every man can relate to.

"The best thing about these sweaters is that they're cotton; you can throw them into the wash machine and there are no problems like there used to be in previous years. In terms of sweaters, in the past men thought of these garments as something you wore to keep you warm. It doesn't have to be the case anymore. It makes sense and it adds another dimension to your wardrobe. Take for instance informal evening wear. If you're invited to a friend's black tie event, but it's not really a serious black tie, a man can wear a cardigan with a satin collar and he'll look better than anyone else and be more comfortable, too," Rokaz said.

The young designer, barely 30, has a lot going for him. His warm sense of humor, his fresh looks, are certainly a plus. He has substantial knowledge of the knitting business and then there's the family background. But most of all, it's his imaginative creativity.

Asked where his his inspirations come from, he replied: "I wish I knew. They're all around, everything I see I want to transform into a design. I want to experiment with stitches, doing things others have not tried before. I think there's almost a three-dimensional feel to knitwear. To me an original stitch is as important as the entire silhouette."

Rokaz says his line of sweaters adds a bit of excitement to men's casual wear. "Before, every other man was wearing a penguin outfit. I was just plain bored with the lack of originality. So, I started designing out of boredom, you might say, because no one else was offering a new look. Everything was so traditional."

His country casual, said Rokaz, was inspired by traditional country aesthetics. Special techniques inspired a whole new concept in knitting - unique pleating in knit fabrics. This process, Rokaz explained, gives the fabric more depth in both comfort and color.

The key to his city sophisticate look, he says, is layered dressing, matching textures in both cardigans and pullovers. The ripple stitch produces a sensual, tactile effect on the pullover with a criss-cross collar as well as a shawl collar cardigan accented with horizontal stripes.

Gaining much popularity are his tuxedo sweaters which are a versatile alternative for formal dressing, sweaters that can be worn under a tuxedo jacket or, instead of a tuxedo jacket. Using the same concept as a pleated tuxedo shirt, Rokaz developed the pleated pullover counterpart.